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Bedford County (US) – Two television journalists were shot and killed in Virginia yesterday morning while conducting a live television interview, their station, WDBJ7 said. The incident occurred during a live broadcast in Bedford County, when shots could be heard, sending the reporter and her source screaming and ducking for cover. The station said that journalists Alison Parker and Adam Ward died in the incident. Vester Flanagan, who shot dead the journalists, had carefully planned his get-away, authorities say. Franklin County Sheriff Bill Overton said Flanagan had fled the scene of the shooting at a mall where the journalists were doing an interview, before deputies arrived.

Roanoke police later found his Ford Mustang at the city’s airport. He’d switched to a car which he’d rented earlier in the month. Overton said Flanagan had been found on an interstate in Fauquier County with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He died about two hours later.

A Virginia state trooper had located him driving on the interstate using licence plate recognition equipment. The trooper had followed Flanagan until backup arrived, then turned on her flashing lights. The suspect tried to evade her, but after a couple of minutes, he ran off the road into the median. That’s where he was found with the gunshot wound.

ABC News says that someone using Flanagan’s name had sent the network a lengthy fax invoking several mass shootings. ABC News reports that a man using the name Bryce Williams called the network in the past few weeks asking to pitch a story and wanting to fax information. The organisation says the man never said what the story was. – AFP.